Plans to tax online dating apps in the USA!
Until now, online dating apps were not taxed anywhere. But now, there has been a proposal to tax them in Washington, the USA. How and why?
Plans to tax online dating apps
Innumerable users are using online dating apps for finding a match for self, irrespective of age, gender, sexuality, or socio-economic status.
These apps helped many though they were also related with several scams: financial, sexual, physical or emotional. But, these apps were extremely beneficial during COVID pandemic and lockdown. However now, people are getting tired of the apps and resorting to in-person meeting to find themselves a partner.
Until now, the apps were spared of any tax impositions. But it looks like that this will not be the state in the future.
Washington State Democrats have made a proposal to tax these dating apps. The state representatives Lauren Davis and Shaun Scott have put forth a bill to levy a tax on apps meant for online dating.
How would online dating be taxed?
As per the terms of the House Bill 2071 that was tabled recently, the dating app companies would be required to pay USD 1 for every Washington-based user per month. This would include paying and non-paying users but would exclude the dating accounts that are inactive for 24 months.
Therefore, Hinge, Bumble, Match.com and Tinder would be affected by this legislation. Now, the bill has been passed on for review to the State House Finance Committee. Lauren Davis said:
“Online dating companies can determine how to absorb the cost,”
“They could simply cut it out of their profits, or increase the fees for paid users by $1/month or possibly begin charging for free users (though the latter is probably less likely).”
How this would affect the dating app companies and fate of the users would be determined as time goes by.
Why the proposal to tax online dating companies?
Lauren revealed that the purpose of this new tax is that the funds generated would be used for domestic violence victims. It would go into a newly created account called the state Domestic Violence Services Account. It would be used to finance lawyer’s fees and intervention programs for victims of domestic violence.
Also, read Dating apps can have negative effect on body image, well-being, and mental health!
Earlier, the funds used to come from those convicted of the crimes. But in 2023, the then-lawmakers passed House Bill 1169 and abolished the Crime Victim Penalty imposed on domestic violence criminals.
And now the proposal is to tax online dating firms and replace the missing funds with these taxes. Lauren told Fox news digital:
“When HB 1169 was passed, the state made a commitment to backfill the funding loss from the CVP with general fund state (GFS) dollars,”
“Unfortunately, the state has not kept this commitment. Prosecutors’ offices across the state have been forced to lay off victim advocates, and scores of victims are no longer receiving victim advocacy services.”
She feels that Washington’s legal system has become a nightmare and tends to protect the defendants and not the victims. Lauren continued:
“The purpose of this tax proposal is to keep the state’s promise to crime victims and not defund victims services,”
“Though a nexus is not required for a tax as it is for a fee, there is a reasonable nexus between online dating apps and domestic violence.”
My take on this proposed new tax
This tax is unjust and not fair. It is like punishing an innocent person for a fault of a criminal. It is like letting the person convicted of domestic violence go scot free with minimal and incomplete punishment. This will not deter them and others from doing domestic violence.
The dating app users taxed would be unhappy that they are paying for someone else’s crimes. This is bad for society.
Instead, the two law makers should have tried to repeal the HB 1169 that was passed in 2023 wrongly.
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